Eleven Girl Scouts and their leaders recently gathered for their annual fall overnight to help put smiles on the faces of less-fortunate children during the Christmas season.

For the past three years, their primary service activity has been the planning, and packing of Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts. The girls shopped for gifts, assembled the shoe boxes, clipped the labels, sorted the gifts, bagged the candy and soap, and wrote letters for each of their 53 shoe box gifts.

The girlsparticipating ranged in age from 7-14, representing Brownie, Junior, and Cadette troops which meet on the first and third Thursday of each month at the First United Methodist Church from 6:30-7:45 p.m.

The troops are led by Suzanna Edwards and Janice Hartinger.

"This has been a great year for these troops as they have gone horseback riding, held their annual overnight, and plan a trip to Silver Dollar City early next month to take in the Christmas festivities," Hartinger wrote in an e-mail to the Rolla Daily News.